I froze for a second as he told me to start, I thought that given my circumstances I would be able to skip this but the man had pointed me out specifically for a reason.

What was I supposed to say? The fact that the entire group of kids were staring at me certainly didn't help.

"Sir, I'm sure you know about my-" I started to talk but was cut off by a sneer from the Chunin as he leaned against a nearby tree.

"Yeah, I was told something about your Jutsus... but so what? I want you to do it anyway." He said, grinning a little with his scowl.

Wow... this dude's cartoonishly evil.

Grow a moustache and start twirling it next why don't you?

I stiffened a little at his "request". Throughout my entire schooling I had never shown anyone how my Jutsus looked, other than Sasuke and the others at home, nobody knew of my condition.

And I'd like to keep it that way for now.

I'm sure that one day it'll become common knowledge, but not yet, the damage I'd receive to my reputation would be too high. I've done my best to make myself as reputable as possible, whether in the classroom or around the village; I couldn't afford to lose that for a measly test.

People knowing that I couldn't do Jutsus yet would be fine, not ideal, but fine. However, I'd rather wait another year to graduate before showing off that demented stick-man of a clone. I tried that Jutsu almost every day and it hadn't even fractionally gotten better.

I shook my head as I looked at the ninja, "Since you know about it, there's no reason for me to join in." I said with a blank face.

The man almost jumped up from the tree and walked over to me briskly, "Listen here brat, I have full control over what goes on in this test. I was told to disregard your Jutsu results, not to make you skip it. Shut up and do as I say. Now." he barked out.

'What the actual fuck's wrong with him?'

I was about to try and fight back when I realised that there was nothing to be gained; I got a small smile on my face when I found the solution to this problem.

Putting on a disappointed face, I asked him to re-iterate the rules which he did, giving me ten seconds to pull off the jutsu.

"..."

The ten seconds passed by slowly, the man boring his eyes into me while I waited to be disqualified. As long as I didn't fight him and "earnestly did my best to perform Jutsu", he couldn't do jack shit.

Once the time had passed he just scoffed at me and then with an unreadable expression, told me to go to the back of the line.

While this whole debacle was going on, from the corner of my eyes I could see the class start to eye me. Some looked sympathetic, most had moved on from me and had begun worrying about themselves, but a small majority looked at me with mocking eyes.

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The kid who showed them up during physical drills, Taijutsu and academic examinations couldn't do Jutsus, those who felt inferior to me would relish moments like this where they felt superior.

None of them ever said it to my face, however.

One by one, all the students in the group did the Jutsus, unlike the Shuriken and Kunai exercises, they managed to perform just as well as they did in class.

Once the last student finished his final Jutsu, the man didn't spare even a second before staring at me and beckoning me closer, standing me at the front of the line once again.

He smiled with crooked teeth, "Now that the rest of the class has finished, I think it's only right you have another go. Start with the Clone Jutsu, take all the time you need... we're waiting." he drawled out.

'Is this the legendary short man syndrome? Is he angry at me for being tall? Was he deprived of attention as a child? Did he recently get cucked? What the actual fuck is this bitch's problem with me?' I thought, staring at the man with concern.

By this point, I was more confused than angry.

I lifted my hands to form the hand signs with no intention to mould my Chakra at all. I weaved them and waited for a moment to show him that nothing was happening.

"Pathetic," he said, glaring down at me as he walked closer.

"In my kindness, I let you have another turn and even then, you can't even make a single clone? Huh? That's ridiculous..." he turned to the rest of the class who were watching awkwardly.

"We have a word for ninjas like this... fodder. Those pathetic twigs that break with even the slightest force; just another body on the battlefield for strong ninjas like us to walk over," he said, pointing a thumb at himself.

The vast majority of the kids behind me were shocked as he finished his sentence, they'd never seen a ninja as this way towards a student. I was the only one who felt relief at his words instead of the chaotic jumble of emotions the students felt.

'Comically evil, this is definitely a test.' I realised. as the man started disparaging me in front of everyone.

I started thinking of ways to work around this situation; in every "test", there's a "right answer", a solution that I can employ to turn things in my favour... but what is it?

Before I could come up with an answer myself, a shout erupted from behind me.

"Aoki's worth a thousand of you, you fence-toothed pipsqueak!"

Everyone's eyes fell on Ryoma as the crowd of kids distanced themselves from him, afraid of catching the ninja's attention. Ryoma stood unperturbed and just stared back the the Chunin with a visible scowl on his face.

The ninja turned to the blue-haired boy with uninterested eyes, losing all the emotion he displayed before, "One more word, and you're expelled." he said in a plain voice.

As loyal of a friend Ryoma was, those words made his mouth close up. For a child like him who had dreamed of becoming a ninja since birth, having that dream threatened made the boy freeze.

I appreciated Ryoma backing me up more than he'd ever know. My mind kept whirring to find a solution when suddenly, another voice from behind me broke my concentration.

"Disrespecting ninja of the Leaf who gave their lives for the village is unbecoming of a Chunin."

I rocketed my head back to make sure that I heard correctly. I recognised that voice.

Yakumi stood staring at the man with slitted eyes, his fists lightly clenched with his arms crossed.

Never in a million years did I expect Yakumi of all people to stand up for me, as shocked as I was, I took this moment to strike while the iron was hot. I had come up with a plan.

"Fine," I said, my voice making the Chunin tear his eyes away from the Uchiha.

I smiled as pleasantly as I could but I didn't think I was a good enough actor to hide the anger I felt within, even if I knew this was all a test, I couldn't help but feel pissed off.

"You're issue with me is that I'm weak right? There's an easy way we can figure out if that's true or not..." I walked away from the line, looking at the arena that we had left a few minutes ago.

"Do you wanna fight?"